Abstract
Alpine plant communities are being subject to climate change, resulting in the need for plants to adapt to new conditions. In this study, we investigated changes in vascular plant diversity along a ...
Highlights
Alpine environments are changing, both due to changes in land use and climate
Alpine plant communities are being subject to climate change, resulting in the need for plants to adapt to new conditions
To analyse vascular plant species distribution along the four abiotic gradients, we studied the distribution of species richness and functional group abundance (a-diversity of species and functional groups), as well as spatial turnover of the species and the functional groups (b-diversity of species and functional groups)
Summary
Both due to changes in land use and climate. The effects of climate change can occur as direct changes in abiotic factors like temperature and precipitation levels, as well as indirect changes due to, e.g. changed biotic interactions (Dullinger et al 2004; Olsen and Klanderud 2013). Temperature change can lead to increased stress in plants, e.g. reduced tissue water status or changed photosynthesis efficiency, which can affect internal processes at different life stages (Wahid et al 2007). This can impact the distribution and abundance of plants, though the effects are likely to vary between species Parmesan 2006 and references therein). Parmesan and Yohe 2003; Vellend et al 2013, and references therein), and plants can address such changes through phenotypic plasticity, genetic adaptation or migration (Hoffmann and Sgro 2011). Of these, Parmesan (2006) points to range shifts (migration) as being the
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